Major people trafficking ring smashed in Greece -Europol

THE HAGUE, March 17 (Reuters) - Police raids across Greece
last week smashed an international people trafficking ring that
made $8 million in profit from smuggling Syrian migrants into
Europe, and 16 suspects were arrested, officials said on
Tuesday.

The operation served to "reinforce our actions against...the
ruthless criminals who facilitate irregular migration to Europe
through the Mediterranean Sea," said Dimitris Avramopoulos,
European Union Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs.

"We are confronted with an unprecedented increase in people
embarking on dangerous journeys, to escape wars," he told
reporters in The Hague, alluding in part to Syria's civil war,
which has displaced about half the country's population.

Rob Wainwright, chief of the European police organisation
Europol, said Greek authorities backed by the Netherlands-based
Europol dismantled the gang in a two-day sweep last week, the
first by a new Europol task force dealing with maritime crime.

In 2014, more than 220,000 migrants entered Europe, compared
to 60,000 a year earlier, and more than 4,000 have died since
2013 attempting the sea crossing, Wainwright said at a media
briefing in The Hague.

He said the gang had smuggled 350 people, mostly Syrians, by
boat to the Greek islands of Kos and Rhodes, charging as much as
9,000 euros ($9,500) per person, Europol said.

The EU's executive Commission is drafting a new immigration
policy, due to be adopted in May, that would offer expanded
opportunities for legal migration as a way of reducing a wave of
illegal migrants from the Middle East and Africa.

The new Europol task force will bring together leading
intelligence experts from European countries most affected by
illegal migration. Working in The Hague, they will share key
data and coordinate actions against human traffickers.
($1 = 0.9436 euros)
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)